


Mad Max Benders

by ahimsabitches



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4994644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahimsabitches/pseuds/ahimsabitches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my answer to the question "What if Mad Max characters could bend the elements like in Avatar The Last Airbender?" This isn't really fiction, per se, but I guess a setting for an AU that I'll eventually write. I'm putting it here so y'all can enjoy it and discuss it. If you end up using this in your own writing, I'd love to know!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mad Max Benders

**Author's Note:**

> “Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want. Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring. Air is the element of freedom. The Air Nomads detached themselves from worldly concerns, and they found peace and freedom. Water is the element of change. The people of the Water Tribes are capable of adapting to many things. They have a sense of community and love that holds them together through anything.”  
> ~Uncle Iroh, ATLA S2E9

Max Rockatansky isn’t a bender. He moves through the Wasteland by his own strength and will and resourcefulness. Bending would be useful for him, but it wouldn’t suit his character.

Furiosa is a firebender. She is powerful and aggressive, choosing to directly confront every challenge that faces her. She is driven by her emotions, most notably her hate for Joe and her desire for redemption.

Immortan Joe is an earthbender. While he fancies himself a god, he is very much a part of the world he lives in, just as everyone else is. Joe has staked a claim and stands his ground, overwhelming his opponents. He is also literally trying to build a new world, and earthbenders are indeed the most suited to this task. Joe’s sons Corpus Colossus and Rictus Erectus are both earthbenders.

The Splendid Angharad is a waterbender. She is not reliant upon her physical strength so much as her ability to connect to others and turn Joe’s energy and motives against him, as she does when she protects Furiosa by using her pregnant belly as a shield. Angharad can also bloodbend, but she never uses this ability on anyone, even Joe.

The Dag is a firebender. Her will and drive are a lot more powerful than they seem. She is aggressive too, but in a less physical way than Furiosa. She is more bite than bark.

Capable is an earthbender. Steady and staid, she is a rock to those around her. She has mastered the art of neutral jing, which is waiting and listening for the right moment to take action. This is evident when she waits to tell Furiosa about Nux when they need his help the most. Otherwise, she’d have thrown him off the rig again and they would have been caught in the Quagmire.

Toast the Knowing is an earthbender. She reminds me the most of Toph. Tough and independent, she’s got a lot of grit and stands her ground like Furiosa.

Cheedo the Fragile is a fledgling waterbender. She will not use her waterbending much for fighting, as she is a pacifist. She will develop her skills as a healer, and will eventually use bloodbending as an elevated form of healing.

Miss Giddy is the last airbender, but nobody besides her knows it.

The Organic Mechanic is a waterbender, and his healing abilities come in great handy in his capacity as medic/healer. He could learn to bloodbend, but he’s too lazy.

Major Kalashnikov, aka The Bullet Farmer, is a metalbender. I don’t think I need to say much more.

The People Eater is a non-bender. I don’t know why; he’s just not.

The Vuvalini are a mix of non-benders, sandbenders and firebenders. There is an earthbender or two, but the tribe thinned out considerably after they had to abandon the Green Place.

No warboy can bend. Once you become half-life, your genetic code is unable to sustain the bending ability.

Joe’s Prime Imperators are both firebenders.

There are benders wandering among the Wretched and the other tribes peppering the Wasteland, but we know little about them because they are either too malnourished to bend or too elusive to be studied. The dune riders living in the mountains are usually non-benders, but they have one or two earthbenders in their ranks.

Waterbending, like water, is the rarest bending ability in the Wasteland. Waterbenders are often treasured and treated like royalty, because the good ones can pull moisture out of the environment. Joe specifically looks for waterbenders to take as wives. 

As far as anyone besides Miss Giddy knows, there are no airbenders in the Wasteland. The airbender gene was sparse enough before the world turned sour, and the combination of the mass extinction of humanity and the subsequent radiation poisoning killed off all the airbenders.

There is no such thing as an Avatar in the Wasteland. There is a mention in one of the history books in the Vault of energybending, and Joe has tried his hand at it, but all of his attempts have failed.

Joe is a very powerful bender. He's very pro-bending, because it gives him, primarily, a very distinct advantage over non-benders. So it's only natural that he would want to build his new world with as many benders as he possibly can. He'd want all of his wives to be benders, because he wants those powerful genes passed on. He'd want his Imperators to be benders as well. all of the people close to him, relatively indisposable, he'd want to be benders. Half-life warboys don't count. They aren't important, so they're not benders.

Out in the Wasteland, there are a lot more non-benders than benders, because even though benders are powerful, the bending gene was recessive to begin with, so there were fewer benders than non-benders from the start. Those who could sandbend or earthbend out in the desert were at an advantage over those who couldn't. Natural selection tends to take over in that case, so over time, the proportion of benders to non-benders may change, depending on how many lose their bending due to illness before they can procreate.


End file.
